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YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y.  Yorktown resident Jack Mota said he bought his Quinlan Street house three years ago believing speed bumps on the road made the neighborhood safe for his two young daughters.

The bumps have since been removed, however, and Mota is leading a charge to reduce vehicle speed on the road.

If I knew that the speed bumps were going to be removed, I never would have bought the house, he said at Tuesday nights Yorktown Town Board meeting.

Referencing Town Board minutes from 2008, Mota said Quinlan Street without speed bumps showed an average speed of 38 miles per hour, with a high speed of 64 miles per hour.

This is a residential area, Mota said. An area with a 30-mile-per-hour speed limit, and it only takes one speeding car to end a life.

When Mota inquired about why the speed bumps were removed, he said he was told that the number one reason was resident complaints.

The other complaint was inconvenience of driving over the bumps with landscaping materials, Mota said. But whats more important: convenience or safety?

Council member Nick Bianco said he lives in the area and agrees that speeding on the street is an issue the board should consider.

Its the shortcut to the mall, and everybody knows that, Bianco said. When I moved there, there was no mall. But thats what it is now, and we need to do something to slow it down. Perhaps stop signs.

Mota said he has walked around the neighborhood gathering signatures for a petition about bringing speed humps to the area. He invited board members to his house to sit down and personally hear from the residents.

Town Supervisor Michael Grace said there are issues with installing speed bumps and humps, but said he will refer Motas comments to the towns Traffic Safety Committee.